Saturday, July 03, 2004

-So, what are my 4th of July plans? Apart from lamenting the passage of half the summer, I probably won’t be doing too much. I was going to go to the Taste of Chicago with friends on Saturday, but transportation issues squashed that. Honestly, while I wouldn’t mind seeing the fireworks in person and hanging with friends, the thought of being caught in that mass exodus after the show is insane. In the meantime, I may be going to our family friend Regina’s house sometime this weekend as well.

-Progress is slow going on my short story. I added about a paragraph when I continued working on it on Thursday night. I’m in that situation that always seems to stifle me...the one when you know what you want to do in a story but not exactly how to pull it off. This often causes me to start from scratch, but I want to finish this. So, I will slog on.

-I was kind of bored on Friday night (it was one of those nights where everyone was in different rooms), so I took a look at an episode of The Jury. The only reason why it caught my eye was because Frankie Faison played one of the jurors in the episode. He may be best known for playing Akeem and Semi’s landlord in Coming to America. I watched for a bit and decided to keep watching. The show (which focuses on the deliberations of a jury in a trial) is actually pretty good. I liked the way that it showed the deliberations and would flashback to testimony or evidence that the jurors used to justify their positions. I also liked how the actual crime was showed at the end to let you see whether or not the outcome of the trial was the right one. The Jury is entertaining in a Law and Order way, minus the procedural stuff. I don’t know if it will become appointment viewing, but it was a nice way to spend an hour when there wasn’t much else on TV.

-I’ve been listening to some of Brandy’s new album Afrodisiac. The production for the album is done primarily by Timbaland (with Kanye West producing the lead single “Talk About Our Love”). Overall, Brandy sounds good. The production is signature Timbaland, although it’s a little bittersweet to hear a female singing voice other than Aaliyah over these tracks. Aaliyah made singing over Timbaland’s unusual tracks seem effortless. It’s not as effortless for Brandy, but she fares pretty well. In the end, I enjoyed what I’ve heard of this album. Oh, and if you liked Coldplay’s “Clocks,” check out “Should I Go?” which samples that song. It turns that famous piano beat into a nice smooth jam without adding much.

-I took a look at the interview with Jack Ryan Friday night on 20/20. You might remember that Ryan was the Republican US Senator candidate for Illinois who dropped out of the race due to information from his divorce/child custody case. In those papers, his ex-wife Jeri Ryan (yes, that Jeri Ryan) said that he took her to sex clubs in various cities and wanted her to have sex with him while others watched. Even though I’m not a supporter of his and I wouldn’t have voted for him in the election, I don’t think what he did was all that big a deal. However, it’s a case of karma, really. He had a person on his campaign staff whose job was to keep tabs on Barack Obama (his Democratic opponent) to see if he contradicts himself. He couldn’t dig anything up on Obama, but his past comes back to haunt him.

There is one thing that I am very happy about though...Obama was not the one who asked for those divorce records. In fact, he consistently distanced himself from that, even when speculation about the records (since they were sealed) happened during the primaries. It took the Chicago Tribune and WLS-TV to get those records. I am also surprised that the Tribune tried to get those records...especially since that paper is staunchly Republican.